Interfax: Putin denies that revision of tax legislation would be a clampdown on business

File Photo of Vladimir Putin at Valdai Club 2013 Meeting, Adapted from Screenshot of Valdai Club Video at youtube.com

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of restoring the practice where police were authorized to prosecute violators of tax laws.

Putin, who was speaking at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, was referring to proposals for changes to the Criminal Code to adjust it to the 2011 liberalization of tax legislation. He had argued earlier that the liberalized tax laws had practically paralyzed two articles in the code.

“What’s being proposed is not going back to the former practice and former legal regulation, and to again authorizing [police] to institute criminal proceedings under Articles 198 and 199,” he said. It was being proposed that launching criminal action would be the prerogative of the Investigative Committee, which would base it on police evidence, Putin said.

“I can’t see any serious problems there. I mean there are problems there but I don’t think that it will all be that complicated and have some serious negative consequences. Moreover, I believe that we are now on the threshold of a decision that would make everyone – both entrepreneurs and people who aren’t involved in business – understand that it might be a stricter but also a more just decision,” he said.

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